Publisher's Synopsis
Coll proceeds smoothly in his analysis but on page.60 makes two major factual errors, which were unnecessary and avoidable ! This is just like Stephen Cohen thoughtlessly stating in his famous book Pakistan Army that there were no All Muslim units in British Indian Army, an absolute distortion of history ! So here on page.60 we find Steve Coll stating fallaciously " Mohammad Zia ul Haq was a young captain in a Punjabi unit of Britains Colonial Army when London's exhausted government finally quit India in 1947." Now why does Mr. Coll state such absolute nonsense, based on no facts in an otherwise brilliant book ? Because he has heard that Pakistan Army and British Indian Army were Punjabi shows ! Coll states on page.60 that His father had been an Anglophilic civil servant ? Zias father was a head clerk or something like that and not a civil servant who in India and Pakistan are officers of grade 17 and above. On page.64 converts Akhtar Abdul Rehman into son of a Pathan medical doctor from Peshawar, while Akhtar Abdul Rehmans father was a Jullundhur Pathan from East Punjab.Pathan by race but a Punjabi by language and upbringing ! Just as much as Eisenhower may be a German ! On page -65 Coll shifts ISI headquarters to Pindi from Islamabad ! It is an Americans privilege to do anything he feels like from changing class composition of 13 Lancers or Guides, to location of ISI headquarters. On page.65 Coll fallaciously states that ISI was staffed down the line by army officers and enlisted men. On page-70 Coll quotes CIA station chief Hart making an interesting remark about Soviets in Afghanistan attacking Pakistan.Thus Coll quotes Hart as stating " the fuckers haven't got the balls." Ironically the same was true for US forces in Afghanistan in 2001 to 2014 .Proving to be the same fuckers as stated by Hart in not having the balls to attack Pakistan despite knowing that Pakistan was supporting Afghan insurgents. History does repeat itself Mr Coll ! On page-103 Coll quotes Pakistans ISI chief General Akhtar as stating his strategy as Kabul must burn ! Now this was one nonsense gimmickal phrase of Akhtar. I asked my distant relative and close friend Colonel Salman who was teacher of all who mattered in Afghan War from Massoud to Haqqani, Hekmatyar down to Mullah Omar and OBL. Salman known as Colonel Faizan in Afghanistan had the following to state: --- Akhtar Abdul Rehman was not a particularly brilliant man and had memorized some phrases like Kabul must burn . He had limited operations to Kabul because he wanted publicity. I was it as a narrow way of waging guerrilla war. On page 166 Coll performs an ingenious US change of race and converts ISIs Colonel Imam who was a Punjabi from Chakwal into a Pathan . for Coll to find Kansi's ethnicity ? Colls information and assessment about Nawaz Sharifs firing Pakistan Army Chief Karamat on page 437-38 is totally incorrect and flawed. Actual facts are as below: --- In September 1998 then Army chief General Karamat started pressurizing the political leadership to include the army in the political decision making . Does Mr Coll not know that US Armys most eminent leaders Lee, Meade and Mac Arthur were from Corps of Engineers ! On page 475 Mr Coll performs yet another magicians trick in raising social status of Generals Musharrafs father from a cypher clerk into an Imperial bureaucrat. On page 504 Coll thrusts a battle honour on General Mahmud into assigning him with the glory of being the frotline commander at Kargil ! Whereas Mahmud hardly went within 100 km near the fighting in Kargil and over saw the operation from safety of his corps headquarters in Pindi, while Pakistani army men were cowardly abandoned to be picked and buried by Indians as non army Mujahids !
